A moped rider from Ozone Park was struck and killed during a chain reaction hit-and-run crash after he was struck by a mystery vehicle in South Ozone Park on the night of Tuesday, June 10.
Police from the 106th Precinct in South Ozone Park responded to a 911 call of a vehicle collision at the intersection of 121st Street and 149th Avenue just after 10 p.m. and found the injured rider lying on the roadway.
Further investigation by the NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad determined that a 25-year-old was operating a 2015 Honda PCX150 gas-powered moped traveling eastbound on 149 Avenue when he was struck by an unknown vehicle traveling westbound in the eastbound lane. The impact of the collision caused the moped to crash into a parked and unoccupied 2015 Ford Transit 350 full-size courier van. EMS responded to the location and rushed the rider to Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead a short while later.
The victim was later identified as Antonio Smit-Ortiz of Silver Road, just over two miles from the scene of the fatal collision. The driver of the first vehicle sped away from the scene. There are no arrests, and the investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Highway District Collision Investigation Squad.
Anyone with information regarding this hit-and-run investigation is asked to call the NYPD’s Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit their tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at crimestoppers.nypdonline.org or on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) @NYPDTips. All calls and messages are confidential.
